Foggy knew that he and Matt were going to have to have an uncomfortable conversation. Maybe even another argument. He had been putting it off for as long as he could, wanting to move forward the way he and Matt had discussed after that horrible night in Matt's apartment. But he knew that he could only do that for so long.

Matt definitely knew that Nelson and Murdock were now representing Spider-Man. Because Peter's privacy related to his identity was so important and because nobody else could know who he was, he was listed as Spider-Man on invoices and in their billing system. Foggy was amused by the way Karen smiled constantly when she saw the name throughout the day. But Matt's mood had been sour around the office lately, and Foggy suspected that Spider-Man, and Foggy keeping secrets, was why.

Not that he felt sorry for his actions. He didn't. If it weren't for Foggy, and for Captain America and Spider-Man, Nelson and Murdock may not even have lasted as long as it had. Foggy was the one bringing in clients. And Foggy was the one putting the majority of the work into what was supposed to be a partnership while Matt prioritized his work as a vigilante over his responsibilities as a lawyer. Foggy didn't begrudge him that. He just didn't like the fact that Matt didn't seem to want to acknowledge it or trust Foggy's judgment. He suspected that Matt knew that, which is why he hadn't said anything so far. But there was only so long that Matt's guilt and Foggy's sense of self-righteousness could hold up before something gave.

That something ended up being another Avenger.

Foggy and Matt were working late on a tough case, finishing up paperwork that absolutely needed to be filed the next morning, when Foggy's phone rang.

"Jen?" asked Matt, smiling.

"No," Foggy said. "Unknown number. Too late to be a telemarketer." He took the call, curious.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Is this Franklin P. Nelson?" a male voice asked.

"It is," said Foggy, even more curious.

"Hey, Steve gave me your number," the man said. "My name's Clint Barton. You probably know me as Hawkeye." Foggy stiffened, suddenly very aware that Matt was sitting across from him and probably listening in to the call.

"Is there a reason you're calling me at 9:30pm on a Tuesday night, Mr. Barton?" he asked.

"Yeah, I got myself in a bit of trouble. With the law. Steve gave me your number and told me if that ever happened that I should call you," Clint said.

"Okay," Foggy said. "Where are you?"

Clint provided the name of a police precinct in Bed-Stuy, said he was being held there and that they wanted to interrogate him. Foggy began pulling his coat on and gathering his things. Finally, Clint hung up and Foggy looked over to see Matt looking at him tensely.

"Hawkeye?" Matt asked.

"Yeah," said Foggy. "I gotta go. I'm really sorry."

"And what am I supposed to do here?" Matt asked, gesturing to the conference table covered in paperwork and legal books.

"I'll make it up to you," Foggy said. "I promise. You can not go out for one night, can't you?"

Matt looked like he wanted to say something. Foggy left before he could.

By the time the police finished interrogating his new client, the sun was just coming up over the city.

"Man," Foggy said to Clint as they walked down the steps of the police station towards the sidewalk, "you look like shit. I'm assuming you have somewhere to go? And access to a doctor who can patch you up?"

Clint shrugged his shoulders. "I'll figure it out," he said.

"What does that mean?" Foggy asked. "Come on, then," he said, gesturing towards himself as he hailed a taxi. "Let's get some food in you and have a look at those cuts and scrapes."

"Seriously?" Clint asked. "Are you sure?"

"I think I've got some Lucky Charms and milk," Foggy said, "and my first aid kit is well-stocked. I could probably even stitch up that cut above your eye pretty well. I need the practice, anyway."

"You're working on your suturing skills? Does that come in handy as a lawyer?" Clint asked.

"You wouldn't be the first superhero I've had eating my food and taking advantage of my hospitality. I'm kind of starting a collection," Foggy said. "Plus, there are other advantages. It makes me useful if there's ever a zombie apocalypse."

Clint laughed and got in the cab. "Well in that case, can I pay you in archery lessons? Skill for skill? Because believe it or not, being an Avenger pays shit."

Foggy laughed as the cab pulled away. Who knew that Hawkeye would end up being his favourite Avenger?

In his apartment, once Clint was settled in with the promised sugary cereal, Foggy began organizing his first aid kit to fix the man up. The mood became more serious.

"Do I want to know what really happened tonight?" Foggy asked. "Because those cops were pretty convinced that you were involved in that hit. And I gotta say, a guy gets taken out on the sidewalk by an arrow to the head from a sixth-story window two streets over, you're the first person I'd suspect too."

"I am that good," Clint replied.

"That doesn't make me feel better," Foggy said. "I know that you're an Avenger and everything, but you guys have been involved in some pretty freaky business. And one would assume that your first call if everything was on the up and up would have been to their legal team, not me."

"Yeah, sorry about that, man," Clint said. "Steve told me you were a stand up guy, which it seems like you are. I wouldn't have involved you, but I didn't know who else to call. I don't want S.H.I.E.L.D. or the Avengers involved in this."

"What is this, exactly?" Foggy asked.

Clint sighed. "Can I trust you?" he asked. "I mean I think that I can, but I also devoted my life to S.H.I.E.L.D. and most of those guys turned out to be the worst kind of backstabbing assholes. So what the hell do I know, really?"

"Steve vouched for me, didn't he?" Foggy said. "If it makes you feel any better, I am also friends with Spider-Man and Daredevil, and those guys have a lot more reason to have trust issues than you do."

"Yeah?" Clint asked. "Spidey seems alright. I've never fought with him personally but I've seen him in action. Daredevil gives me the creeps, though. You're really friends with him?"

"When he's not being surly," Foggy said.

"So you're not, then," said Clint.

"Ha ha. I'm going to tell him you said that," Foggy said.

Clint just smiled. "It was my brother," he finally said.

"Sorry?" Foggy asked.

"The hit man who took out that diplomat tonight," Clint replied. "It wasn't me, but I was still responsible. Because I couldn't talk my brother Barney out of it."

Foggy took a deep breath. "Oh. Okay. You're quite the talented family, then?" he asked.

"We trained under the same man," Clint said. "He went one way. I went another. I wish things were different, but they're obviously not. That's why I didn't want to involve anyone else."

"So that you could catch your brother yourself?" Foggy asked, "Or so that he could get away?"

"Honestly," Clint said, "I haven't really decided yet."

"You know that he almost pinned it on you, right?" Foggy said. "Just because they don't have any evidence it was you doesn't mean that the cops aren't still going to be looking at you pretty closely for it. I would advise leaning on the Avengers to put pressure on the cops to back off if I were you. It could still come back on you."

"I know," Clint said. "It's going to get back to Steve and the others sooner or later. But that's for me to worry about. I'm just glad I could count on you to show up tonight. I appreciate it."

"Of course," said Foggy. "You know that I'm considering all these hours as billable, right? So you are going to owe me a lot of archery lessons. I'm going to start clearing room on my shelf over there for my Olympic gold medal."

Clint laughed as Foggy pulled a chair closer to him so that he could stitch him up.

Foggy didn't sleep that night. He didn't have time. By the time he tucked a blanket around the exhausted archer sleeping on his couch, it was already 8am. He could have called in sick, but he knew that it would have only raised more red flags with Matt and been taking the cowards way out.

When he stumbled into the office an hour later wearing the same suit he had left in the night before, he was surprised to find that Karen wasn't at her desk yet. Matt was standing in his office waiting for him.

"Did you want something, buddy?" Foggy asked. "Because I'm really exhausted and we still have a lot of work to get done on the Cappoletto case, even if you did get the initial complaint ready for filing last night. Which I'm hoping for the sake of our client you did."

Matt just sighed. "I told you that I didn't want this firm to be associated with superheroes, Foggy," Matt said. "Hawkeye? Really?"

"No," said Foggy, "You didn't say superheroes, Matt. You said Daredevil. And you should be thanking me."

"Thanking you?" Matt asked, angry. "Foggy, do you have any idea how exposed it makes us to be known as an Avengers lawyers? Or Spider-Man's?"

Unfortunately for Matt, Foggy was too tired to hold back what he thought of that. "Hmmmm... I don't know, Matt," he said, "Maybe as exposed as having Daredevil as one of the partners does? But of course you don't care about that, do you? You're so worried about protecting me and this business that you don't see the ways that it needs protection from you! From you neglecting this firm to the point where it's not financially stable! From you putting us at risk of lawsuits, police investigations or disbarment if your identity ever becomes known! I'm doing what I have to do, Matt. Spider-Man and Hawkeye? They're practice clients. Training wheels for when the real shit hits the fan with what you're doing every night. So yes, you should be kissing my ass right now telling me what a great and wonderful friend I am, because you're lucky to have me."

"So that's what you think, then," Matt said, and Foggy immediately regretted the way it had come out of his mouth. Matt looked devastated. "You think that I'm just going to hang you out to dry? That I am not as invested in what we're doing here as you are?"

"No, Matt," Foggy said, but it was too late to take it back.

"You don't trust me," said Matt. "You're so certain that I'm not going to be careful enough and that my identity will come out."

"Are you kidding me?" Foggy asked. "Matt, I trust you more than I probably should. I'm here, aren't I? I'm keeping your secret. Every day. Lying to everyone, including Karen. Everything I've been doing has been about protecting you. But, Matt, do you trust me? Because it kind of seems like you really don't. And this can't be one way. I can't put all of my faith in you and have you turn around and dismiss my opinion, have you question my decisions. We're supposed to be partners."

"We are!" said Matt.

"We could be," Foggy said. "Now that I know the truth. The truth that I had to find out accidentally, I'd just like to remind you."

"Foggy..." Matt said, clearly intending to apologize again.

"No, Matt," Foggy said. "I don't need apologies, or groveling, or for you to blame yourself for what happened. I just need to know that I can be as honest with you as I want you to be with me from now on, and that you'll take me seriously. That you won't assume that you always know what you're doing, and that you won't worry about protecting me over protecting yourself. And that you'll be here for me when I need you to be."

"Always," said Matt. "I just don't want you getting involved in that world, Foggy. It's dangerous."

"You think I don't know that?" Foggy asked, "I was right in the middle of the Chitauri invasion, Matt. Remember? Aliens and destruction in the sky, buildings collapsing, nuclear weapons nearly being dropped on us? I went to Mrs. Cardenas' funeral just like you did, and I've visited Ben's grave too. Just a few weeks ago, I was attacked by a crazy guy on metal stilts and had a car thrown at me. A car! But you know what? At the end of the day, I'm not just Hawkeye and Spider-Man's lawyer. Captain America puts his faith in me. And I wielded Thor's freakin' hammer once. So you don't have to worry about me so much, alright? I may not have crazy ninja powers, but I'm a fantastic lawyer and I promise you that I will be careful, I will be smart, and together we will make the names Nelson and Murdock mean as much as the name Daredevil does to people. You were the one who wanted us to make a difference. the right way. So let's do it already!"

A slight smile crept across Matt's face. "You wielded Thor's hammer?" he asked in amazement.

"Oh, yeah," Foggy said. "I took out one of the Chitauri with it. Saved my sister's life during the Battle of New York. But, you know, it was no big thing really."

"Big thing, Foggy," Matt said. "Big thing. You need to tell me everything. Right now."

And so Foggy did. He kept it professional, though. He left out the part where he had beers and sometimes had pinball competitions with Steve in his favorite Brooklyn bar, or the time he once coached Peter through a particularly bad bit of lovesick teen angst via text message, and avoided telling him about the upcoming archery lesson he had scheduled with the world's greatest marksman. And he didn't see the need to alarm Matt by telling him that he suspected his girlfriend might be the She-Hulk recently seen helping the Avengers. He wanted to be honest with Matt, not show off. He didn't want to make the man jealous.